William Alcindor, the Queens driver fatally struck in the head by a stray bullet before plowing into a pedestrian and crashing his SUV into a building, was a hard-working immigrant grandfather, his family said Tuesday.
“He didn’t like to fight. He didn’t like to argue,” said Alcindor’s daughter Gabriella Alcindor, 25, a day after the tragic murder.
“He was someone who was just non-confrontational. He just wanted to go to work, go to church, kiss his mother, kiss his children, hug his sisters, love his grandchildren. And he just wanted to go home at the end of the day”.
He didn’t do it. Cops said Alcindor, 66, was driving through the intersection at 117th Street and Farmers Blvd. in Sant’Albanu as soon as a bullet hit him in the head, triggering the horrible chain of events around 4 o’clock on Monday evening.
Relatives described Alcindor as a working Haitian immigrant. How long does it take? Some family members said they didn’t even know Alcindor was back at work after recent health problems sidelined him from his job delivering car parts.
“I actually didn’t know he went back to work because all of us didn’t want to,” said Gabriella, recalling her father’s stroke more than a decade ago. “He can’t carry these things, you know. He stopped for a while. We assume that’s what he was doing here, because he has no reason to be here. We thought he was leaving things. I found out he was working again last night from my cousin.
She said that Alcindor could not bear to be confined at home.
“In 2013 he had a stroke,” Gabriella said. “He had to stop working. He just wanted to find something to do. He was complaining about having to sit at home.”
It would have been safer there on Monday afternoon.
That’s when he was driving his Nissan SUV past a of Popeye parking lot, where a teenage gunman fired several shots during a dispute with several rivals.
Alcindor, mortally wounded, hit a pedestrian before throwing himself into a building.
Doctors took Alcindor to Jamaica Hospital, where he died a short time later. The pedestrian was taken to the same hospital in stable condition.
The shooter and several people around him escaped. There was no arrest.
“It’s still surreal,” said the victim’s daughter, Sophia Alcindor, 40. “I still can’t process it. I woke up this morning – I barely slept, but when I opened my eyes I was like, ‘Yes, it happened.’
She said she doesn’t want to see that happen to anyone else.
“These guns, it’s a problem,” he said. “People don’t want to talk about it, but it’s a problem. It’s like you want to pretend it’s not happening. We’re still just trying to process everything because you don’t plan things like this. It was driving. It was just lead.”
Police on Tuesday released a surveillance image of the suspected gunman and asked for the public’s help in identifying him and tracking him down.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.